A unique initiative is taking off in Bradford to twin one of the city's temples with an RAF station.

Sikh worshippers at Guru Gobind Singh Temple, in Leeds Road, made the first move to invite the military base at Linton-on-Ouse to become their official twin.

The temple and the base first struck up friendship five years ago when personnel from Linton-On-Ouse began visits to the Wednesday night Sikhi scripture reading discussion group as part of a community awareness scheme.

The scheme was originally launched to show the "human face" behind the armed force.

Chief technician Phil Prosser says he and other colleagues are familiar faces now at the Leeds Road temple and have become firm friends with worshippers there over the years.

As well as visits to the temple, the RAF station invites their new friends back to their base.

"We've organised football matches, VIP trips round the base and even turns in our flight simulator.

"We've made good friends and we were delighted when the temple approached us about twinning up.

"Our visits aren't about recruiting, they are about dispelling the myth that the RAF just flies around shooting people.

"It's the public who pay our wages so we think we should be telling them what they get for their money.

"It's amazing the number of people who actually think we are part of the Army.

"Lots of the work we do includes search and rescue from sea dramas to getting a stranded RAC man out of a snowdrift. We were also involved in flying out aid to the tsunami victims."

Temple elder Dr Rajinder Singh Panesar said the friendship was about "building bridges" in the community.

"Through our friendship with the RAF we have been introduced to other groups and communities from the region. It's about building bridges and networking, making new friends.

"We are also learning about the RAF and they are learning about us.

"We thought the twinning idea was a way of celebrating our friendship even more."

Other friendship projects being co-ordinated by Phil's community team include twinning up base schools at RAF Linton-on-Ouse and RAF Leeming with Pudsey's Bolton Royd Primary and Bradford's Cavendish Primary schools.

Phil added: "Children living on RAF bases are cocooned a bit and tend to live in their own world so it'll be great for them to make new friends.

We know the youngsters from Pudsey and Bradford will be sure of a warm welcome back."